PRAYER

Prayer.

Our Walk and Talk with God.

By

John R A Smith.

After seeking God and having an earnest desire to draw nearer to him in all and every aspect of my life and ministry, I have come to a realisation that it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who in my mind is the supreme improviser, and brings into our midst regardless of what stage we have reached, that which has already been secured for us in Christ Jesus.

It is up to us to answer the promptings and recognise the Spirit of God who is inviting each of us in this process, and to grasp the Holy Spirit’s many improvisations. And this is not a licence as some seem to believe to carry on living in a life of sin.

No, far from it, it is by God’s grace and abundant mercy that we while still sinners had Christ Jesus take our place in an Atoning Sacrifice.

The gospel can be full of wisdom to those who would but seek it out and have the Spirit of God open our eyes and hearts of understanding.

Leading us under the Holy Spirits guidance to come to value and understand God’s will as found in the Holy Scriptures of our Bible, and which requires forethought to the consequences of the fruitfulness of our actions.

Allow me to ask a question.

Have you ever asked yourself are my prayer’s been heard, and am I truly walking in line with God’s will?

We all if we are truly wanting and desiring in faith and action, to walk in Gods will, and then we ask ourselves, what do we pray for, and how do we pray to God?

Some have set prayers which they say almost mechanically, yet truly mean from within their hearts, while others prefer to simply converse with God in a way simply by talking as you would to a friend.

I am not here to pass judgement on which way or method a person should use, I am writing this only to guide you into scriptural guidelines, and that you follow the commandments of Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

Look at (Philippians 1:9-11). ”And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:9-11 NIV).

Our Holy scripture guides us as an instruction manual in how we should proceed, even in today’s timeline. While yes, there are some within the Christian faith who do accept the Bible as correct and true, while others see our Holy Scriptures, and only look on them as a reference and full of human errors.

Yes, I shall not lie, there are errors in the translations as used by today’s Christians, but, and this is a big but. We are aware of these, which can be simple translation errors, and we follow two simple methods.

The first is to research and study Gods living word daily, and that is something which I would recommend we all did.

The second is to commune with God in daily prayers and seek the Holy Spirits guidance along with your daily studies. Which I also recommend we do.

The Holy Spirit is there to guide and help each one of us, to talk to our consciousness and hearts and guide us in the will of Father God.

And what we ask, is Gods will in our lives?

Jesus made that very clear in the first two commandments and clearly stated these were commandments and something which he, Jesus expected us to do as natural and a part of our everyday life.

So, let me ask you a question,

“To your way of thinking, what is placing God first, and what does it actually mean?”

Allow me to give a starting point for you to launch your thoughts. I genuinely knew of a person who loved money, so much so that to lose a single pound coin, hurt him deeply, and he became angry if he lost out financially on a decision that cost him money.

Money was first and foremost in his life, and this, in turn, reflected how he saw not only himself but that of other people.

One day he became angry with a neighbour because he (this person) pulled down a perfectly good useable fence and had a more expensive fence erected and treated for weather. Only to learn it was not his garden fence but that of his neighbours. So, he set about trying to recover the financial cost of the fence from his neighbour and was most upset to learn he had no legal case.

He hated anything which cost him money, including immigration, and showing mercy and kindness to those in need, and if you were not British by birth, then you had no right to be here draining our resources in his mind view of life.

Allow me to ask you had he put God first in his life and followed the first two commandments as given to us by Jesus?

Now apply that viewpoint to the things many of us do in our own lives, I know if I am honest that I also fail in some of these areas. Yes, I try like many of us to put God first, but I do acknowledge I can fail, and do. Not intentionally I just find myself getting caught up in something else which can take me away from spending time with God.

Even if it is something simple like a person on our minds, and who has caused me stress and possibly disrupted your relationship with them and your God.

Do you find yourself thinking constantly about the actions of this person, or do you talk it over with God asking for guidance and forgiveness and peace of mind?

What would you truly do? And how would responding negatively help the situation?

Why not follow the Apostle Paul in his example as in the scriptures Philippians 1: 4.

“Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy” (NLT, second edition).

There is a strong clue within the scriptural verse, as it informs us that Paul made his requests with joy. So, what is Joy?” The dictionary in a Google search expressed Joy as follows:

Noun: Joy

A feeling of great pleasure and happiness. “tears of joy”

Delight, great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation,

Synonyms: rejoicing, happiness, gladness, glee, exhilaration, ebullience, exuberance, elation, euphoria, bliss, ecstasy, transports of delight, rapture, radiance; and more.

“Is it that easy to pray in such a manner for someone who has been causing you concern and difficulty?”

Example: The mother of a person’s grandchildren who I know sadly has an issue in her life which has caused me serious reasons to be concerned. She has become an alcoholic and abuser of substances including medication and drugs.

She left the children aged between five and eight with a Paedophile and often alone without supervision, and allowing them to go cold and hungry, and even sending them out in winter without coats or warm clothing, often while drunk and unable to responsibly care for her children.

(This is a genuine case file, and not one of imagination.)

Knowing and loving these children and having a concern for their safety and welfare, allow me if you could to follow Pauls example?

For many of us, it would not be such an easy thing to do, rather than pleading with God in despair for the safety of the children. Yet Paul states the requests need to be given in a set manner.

Following if you realise it the two great commandments as given to us from Jesus. Placing God first, even above your concerns of the children as strange to some as that must seem.

If you can have such faith that likes Paul regardless of the circumstances and God is central in your vision and your oneness with him through the Holy Spirit is such that even such matters as important as they are, God will become your primary concern, knowing he is aware and will care for the children.

Now apply the second commandment to this equation and in love, the very love Jesus showed to us, and apply that to the mother of the children, knowing Father God will see all things, and trust in him in all Joy to hear your prayers.